MarTech Made in Canada: 5Crowd

As an non-traditional marketing agency, 5Crowd provides a platform to connect brands with a range of marketing freelance professionals across the globe. Find out more about how they use technology to connect passionate content creators with the companies who require creative diversity.

Briefly describe your company

We’re a technology-enabled production agency with no creative or production folks on staff. Instead, we have a curated network of freelance professionals located in over 150 cities around the world, which we call our Crowd. We have a diverse range of skillsets in our Crowd, including copywriters, designers, and videographers. We are fortunate to work with over 100 global brands including clients like Labatt, J&J, Microsoft, Twitter, McDonald’s, and more.

How big is your team?

We are a core group of 15 people based out of Toronto who are focused on client services, project management, and software development. And of course, we work with a large network of freelance professionals that allow us to extend our capabilities to meet the diverse needs of our clients.

Why is your tech needed?

Our platform provides a 360-degree solution for onboarding, managing and collaborating with freelance professionals all around the world. This includes things like matching new projects with the right freelancers, making payments, and collaborating on files. The tech removes a lot of the friction involved with pulling together freelance teams, making the process a lot more rewarding and fun for everyone involved.

In 10 years, how will your company have changed the face of marketing?

The advertising industry is changing rapidly, and we are very excited to be a part of it. However, the most rewarding part is enabling our clients to innovate and adapt to the changing landscapes. For many of our clients, we aren’t just another supplier — we change the way work gets done. We’ve seen the impact that decoupling creative and execution can have on a business, not just on their bottom line but also in the ability to do more with less. We’re also big believers in meritocracy, and we work hard to bridge the gap between large enterprise and freelance professionals, providing exciting project opportunities to great people across the globe.

What is the biggest advantage of being based in Canada?

Canada is a fantastic place to start a tech company. We have programs like SR&ED and IRAP and we have access to great talent. However, one specific advantage is that most multinationals have a presence in the GTA – if you go up and down one highway you can get between all of them. This factor makes Toronto a great place to incubate any sort of enterprise-based business and build early relationships with lots of large customers. While the US has tremendous scale, sales processes are complicated by headquarters spread out among regional business centers with many more decision makers. Canada has a real opportunity to incubate, de-risk, and export enterprise innovation.

Canada has a real opportunity to incubate, de-risk, and export enterprise innovation.

What was your biggest “win” this year?

5Crowd was recently acquired by sgsco, a global leader in marketing production owned by ONEX. Since our acquisition by sgsco, we have seen a lot of growth in our business. It has been incredible to have clients lean-in and see our 5Crowd team create a great impact on their business. Through this expansion, we have gained lots of traction on our mission to unlock the power of freelance and share it with the world.

With an ever-expanding Crowd, 5Crowd continues to serve as a key tool for simplifying the marketer’s hunt for creativity. Check out 5Crowd’s site for more information on this out-of-the-box agency. Qoints is excited to promote Canadian talent within our MarTechMade In Canada series, following the positive reaction to last year’s article. If you wish to share the story of your Canadian MarTech startup’s journey, reach out to info@qoints.com today!